Edgar G. Ulmer | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1904-09-17)17 September 1904 |
| Died | 30 September 1972(1972-09-30) (aged 68) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director,screenwriter,set designer |
| Notable work |
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| Spouse | Shirley Ulmer (married 1935 -) |
| Children | Arianne Ulmer |
Edgar Georg Ulmer (/ˈʌlmər/; 17 September 1904 – 30 September 1972) was an Austrian film director who worked mainly in HollywoodB movies and other low-budget productions, eventually earning the epithet 'The King ofPRC', due to his extremely prolific output for thePoverty Row studios. His stylish and eccentric works came to be appreciated byauteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement. Ulmer's most famous productions include thehorror filmThe Black Cat (1934) and thefilm noirDetour[1] (1945).
Ulmer was born inOlomouc,Moravia,Austria-Hungary (now theCzech Republic). His family wereMoravian Jews.[2] As a young man he lived inVienna, where he worked as a stage actor and set designer while studying architecture and philosophy.[3] He did set design forMax Reinhardt's theater, served his apprenticeship withF. W. Murnau, and worked with directors includingRobert Siodmak,Billy Wilder,Fred Zinnemann and cinematographerEugen Schüfftan, inventor of theSchüfftan process. He also claimed to have worked onDer Golem (1920),Metropolis (1927), andM (1931), but there is no evidence to support this. Ulmer came to Hollywood with Murnau in 1926 to assist with the art direction onSunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). In an interview withPeter Bogdanovich, he also recalled making two-reel westerns in Hollywood around this time.[4]
The first feature he directed in North America,Damaged Lives (1933), was a low-budgetexploitation film exposing the horrors of venereal disease. His next film,The Black Cat (1934), starringBéla Lugosi andBoris Karloff, was made forUniversal Pictures. Demonstrating the striking visual style that would be Ulmer's hallmark, the film was Universal's biggest hit of the season.[5] Ulmer, however, had begun an affair withShirley Beatrice Kassler, who had been married since 1933 to independent producerMax Alexander, nephew of Universal studio headCarl Laemmle. Kassler's divorce in 1936 and her marriage to Ulmer later the same year led to his being exiled from the major Hollywood studios. Ulmer was relegated to makingB movies atPoverty Row production houses.[6] His wife, now Shirley Ulmer, acted as script supervisor on nearly all of these films, and she wrote the screenplays for several. Their daughter, Arianne, appeared as an extra in several of his films.
Consigned to the fringes of the U.S. motion picture industry, for a time Ulmer specialized first in "ethnic films," in Ukrainian—Natalka Poltavka (1937),Cossacks in Exile (1939)—and Yiddish—The Light Ahead (1939),Americaner Shadchen (1940).[7] The best-known of these ethnic films is the YiddishGreen Fields (1937), co-directed withJacob Ben-Ami.
Ulmer eventually found a niche making melodramas on tiny budgets and with often unpromising scripts and actors forProducers Releasing Corporation (PRC), with Ulmer describing himself as "theFrank Capra of PRC".[8][9] His PRC thrillerDetour (1945) has won considerable acclaim as a prime example of low-budgetfilm noir, and it was selected by theLibrary of Congress among the first group of 100 American films worthy of special preservation efforts. In 1947, Ulmer madeCarnegie Hall with the help of conductorFritz Reiner, godfather of the Ulmers' daughter, Arianné. The film features performances by many leading figures in classical music, including Reiner,Jascha Heifetz,Artur Rubinstein,Gregor Piatigorsky andLily Pons.[10] Ulmer did get a chance to direct two films with substantial budgets,The Strange Woman (1946) andRuthless (1948). The former, featuring a strong performance byHedy Lamarr, is regarded by critics as one of Ulmer's best. He directed a low-budget science-fiction film with a noirish tone,The Man from Planet X (1951). His last film,The Cavern (1964), was shot in Italy.
Ulmer died in 1972 inWoodland Hills, California, after a crippling stroke. He is interred in the Hall of David Mausoleum in theHollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, CA. His wife, Shirley Ulmer, is interred nearby.
Commemorating the 30th anniversary of his death, a three-day symposium of lectures and screenings was held at New York City'sNew School in November 2002. In 2005, researcher Bernd Herzogenrath uncovered the address where Ulmer was born in Olomouc. A memorial plaque commemorating Ulmer's birth home was unveiled on 17 September 2006, on the occasion of Ulmerfest 2006—the first European academic conference devoted to Ulmer's work.
The moving image collection of Edgar G. Ulmer is held at theAcademy Film Archive. The film material at the Academy Film Archive is complemented by material in the Edgar G. Ulmer papers at the Academy'sMargaret Herrick Library.[11]
as set designer (disputed):
as co-director:
as director:
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